Oscar Nominee Thoughts for Sunday

Every year, Hollywood congregates for one night known as the Oscars. For no reason other than to congratulate one another, awkwardly matched celebrities hand awards to the best of the best in categories like make-up, acting, directing, costume designing and screenwriting. On January 22nd, the Academy released their nominee’s for this year’s Oscars (the show air on February 22nd). In a year where the categories seemed pre-planned and extremely cookie-cutter, Academy voters decided to throw a curve ball.

Sparing the more boring categories (although Man on Wire, the best movie of 2008, did get a Best Documentary nomination) and move on to Best Original Song. The Wrestler by Bruce Springsteen won the Golden Globe for the same category but failed to even score a nomination by the Academy. If viewers remember last year, the same thing happened to Eddie Vedder for his song Guaranteed. This is just the beginning of the oddball nominees.

Supporting actor this year was certainly more “Just an honor to be nominated” considering the momentum Heath Ledger has gained coming into the awards show. Other notable nominees would be Robert Downey Jr. for Tropic Thunder and Phillip Seymour Hoffman for Doubt. Both actors were locks going in, but the Academy changed up the last two slots. Michael Shannon got a surprise nomination for his role as an insane man in Revolutionary Road. This is easily the second best performance in this category and in another Ledger-less year, it might have been seen as more of a threat, but the lack of buzz around the performance leaves viewers dumbfounded at how it even scored a nomination. The last slot goes to Josh Brolin for Milk. Brolin likely got the nomination with voters remembering his superb turn as our former president in W., which he got snubbed for. In this category, it seems obvious “The Joker” will be taking home the gold.

Supporting Actress also saw some interesting changes. Penelope Cruz was labeled as a leading actress by the Hollywood Foreign Press, but apparently academy awards voters deemed her a supporting one. Cruz was merely average in the movie similarly to Tarji P. Henson in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Similarly to Michael Shannon, this is someone who hasn’t gotten a lot of notoriety for her performance up until now and Henson isn’t much of a threat. Picking a winner for this category is tough but Amy Adams gives the strongest performance in Doubt. Most critics found her the weak link in the movie’s performances, but she delivers a subtle and effective performance as a nun trying to figure out her place in a Catholic school. The only true contenders though would be Viola Davis as a mother handling the prospects of her sons alleged molestation in Doubt and Marissa Tomei as an aging stripper in The Wrestler. Davis will take home the gold although she’s only in the movie for 12 minutes, but this category could go anyway come the 22nd.

Best Actor comes down to 3 men. Frank Langella’s portrayal of Richard Nixon is surprisingly good and he is the oldest actor in this category; so there is a good chance Hollywood sees him take home the gold for Frost/Nixon. Thoughts? No chance. This category comes down to a ring match between the first gay man elected into major office, Harvey Milk and aging wrestler Randy “the Ram” Robinson. Yes, Sean Penn for Milk and Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler. Both performances are phenomenal. The general consensus is Rourke wins but instinctually voters should go with Sean Penn. His performance is more flamboyant and less subtle than Rourkes. Also in the category are Richard Jenkins in The Visitor, who follows the Shannon and Henson in the path of random nominations this year. Brad Pitt will likely get overlooked considering how much make-up and CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) was used on his character Benjamin Button. The real question comes to how much of the acting is Brad, and how much is Hollywood trickery?

Mellisa Leo comes out of nowhere to get a nomination for Best Actress for Frozen River. Meryl Streep obrained her 15th career nomination for Doubt, a performance she could easily get the gold for. There’s also the brilliant and under looked Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married, certainly a more showy performance than most in this category. Next is Kate Winslet for Revolutionary Road…wait, what’s that? No, she gets her nomination for The Reader? Yes in what most assumed would be a double year for Winslet (A Supporting Actress nomination for The Reader and a Lead Actress for Revolutionary Road), she somehow received only one nomination. She was overlooked for her performance in Revolutionary Road (a movie that was overall snubbed by the academy), a role where she delivers some of her most moving and emotionally effective work. Winslet finally, after her 6th nomination, will take home her first statue.

Best Motion Picture of 2008 though was the most disappointing category. The nominees are Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon, and The Reader. What about The Wrestler?! What about The Dark Knight!? What about Revolutionary Road?! Nowhere to be seen are The Wrestler and The Dark Knight, not only some of the best work of last year, but also some of the best work of the past 25 years. Both are two of the year’s best movies and it seems strange that The Wrestler got the same number of nomination as this summer’s Wanted. Movies like Benjamin Button and Frost/Nixon are good but Oscar nominee worthy? Slumdog Millionaire will undoubtedly walk away with the gold taking into consideration the movies recent S.A.G (Screen Actors Guild) and Golden Globe wins.
Overall these nominations were bittersweet. Sure they got things wrong but at least they kept us guessing until the end. Viewers may tune into see what the overall outcome will be on February 22nd on ABC.